Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Series Adapted for Television

One of the greatest works in science fiction is rumored to be filmed as a television adaptation. The Foundation Series written by Isaac Asimov stands the test of time as a seminal work in science fiction. So when I read they were finally thinking of working it into a television series I was struck with instant giddiness. The director Roland Emmerich known most notably for such cinematic travesties as 10,000 BC and 2012 was in the works to produce it for the silver screen. Now I think we can all rest a little easier that the power has been shifted a tad away from him and into the more capable hands of another. In my humble opinion the series is so grand and covers so much ground it could only really work as a television series. I think it to dry for film in its entirety and too dense to try and compress. It is a classical work of science fiction in which every sentence is vital even if it is only two people in a room talking. As a series on television, one can get away with just two people in a room talking in a way movies can’t, in that it can be episodical and not the instant rush movies are known for.

The series(without giving away any spoilers) surrounds the person Hari Seldon and his science of Psychohistory. Psychohistory is the epitome of the psychological sciences in the way that it can accurately predict the future outcome of human beings. Mind you this is not individual humans, it is a mob law. dealing with mass amounts of humans, and in Hari’s situation the mass of humans numbers in the quadrillions given that this is approximately 10,000 years into the future. It predicts humans in a manner that is metaphorical to the gas laws in physics. it is quite impossible to predict a single molecule of a gas, but very easy to do so when dealing with billions of them. It is a science of the statistics of mass humans. The story follows foundations he sets up in order to limit the amount of barbaric times resulting from the fall of the great galactic empire from 30,000 years to a mere 1,000.

I have no idea the plan for the series in the slightest but I honestly hope they start from the beginning of the story chronologically and not in the order they were written. Asimov penned the last 5 books before he then wrote two prequels. I hope they start with the prequels given it adequately foreshadows the following 5 in a very satisfying way.

This is among my absolute favorite book series so I can only hope that the producers stick to the source material and allow the story to speak for itself. I fear some will want to embellish or add to the story in an unnecessary way worrying that the story as it stands won’t appeal to many current audiences. I call foul if this is the case since it has been heralded as one of the greatest series in all science fiction. The series as well as the other 400 or so books Asimov wrote granted him status of Grand master in Science Fiction literature. So I can only hope all this assuages the producers from the impulse to alter his great work. If this does go through and is a success than it may open up the doors to the rest of his extensive catalog of material for production.